Come April, St. Albert’s donors will all give blood at the same place.
Canadian Blood Services is centralizing local mobile clinics at the St. Albert Youth Community Centre.
They are also changing clinic days to Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
“We had five different sites going on in St. Albert so sometimes there was a bit of confusion among donors, people going to the wrong site for their blood donor appointment,” said Keri Cable, community development coordinator for Canadian Blood Services in the Edmonton region.
“So to centralize it, that way when people think of blood donation they can go there.”
Every mobile clinic collects about 120 units of blood. One unit is 450 millilitres, or just under two cups – about a tenth of the amount of blood in one person.
Once a donation is made the blood is tested at a laboratory and goes out to a hospital within a week. Red blood cells have a shelf life of 42 days but most donations are used within five days.
Cable said other communities changed their clinic hours to earlier in the week.
That increased the need for donations on Friday and Saturday, since no blood is collected on Sunday.
With over 1470 active donors in the community, Cable said it made sense to change clinic hours.
“We are closed on Sunday so we need to collect a larger amount of blood over the weekend,” she said.
“The need is constant and ongoing. We are very appreciative of the donors we have in St. Albert. They made an incredible impact and we hope they will continue to do so.”
Cable said some people were hesitant about the move but they shouldn’t worry.
A lot of the volunteers from the former blood clinics decided to work at the centre and the staff will remain the same.
She added that holding clinics at the new location advertises the work of the Youth Community Centre in the city.
There are also opportunities for youth to help out in the clinic once it opens.
“The clinic space, it will do well for us. It’s a nice location and it is quite easy for everyone to get down there,” Cable said.
“And St. Albert has such a dedicated donor base, I don’t think they’ll have any issues adapting to this change.”
The first clinic will be held on April 24 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., followed by a clinic on Friday, April 26 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Saturday clinics will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Wednesday clinics will be held once a month, while Friday and Saturday clinics will be held every eight weeks.
The St. Albert Youth Community Centre is located in Grandin Mall at 29-22 Sir Winston Churchill Ave.
